The future of space exploration starts in the future

摘要

During a three-month period starting in October 2000 and a two-month period in 2001 I installed the project Artist-Astronaut at two musea, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Ferens Gallery Hull. The mission of the Artist-Astronaut project was to investigate, in the form of an artwork, the possible effects of Artist integration into space exploration activities. The (art) installation was open to public view, but I held a Call for Participation amongst my colleagues in the Arts to select participants for an investigation that would take place in the exhibition space. During a series of closed sessions, applicants that I had selected because they possessed the Right Stuff, took upon themselves the role of Artist-Astronaut. As an Artist I chose to create an experience to access the 'data' I required from the Artist-Astronaut participants. My goal was to display an Artist perspective up to 50 years of Artist involvement in space exploration as art. To do this I took my Artist-Astronaut participants on a mission several decades into the future. In the highly suggestive 'holodeck' installation the participants were guided through time to the year 2050 using hypnotic techniques. During this time-journey the participants were made suggestible that they had either witnessed or participated in a number of Artist missions. Having arrived in 2050, the participants were given time to reflect upon this experience and discuss at length their own contributions to their field amongst their peers. I recorded these sessions in which the Artist-Astronauts speak from 'the future' to relay their vision. In addition to this paper, I will accompany my live-presentation at session P4.02 of the 52nd annual International Astronautical Federation Congress with video material of the most recent Artist-Astronaut 'future-sessions'. This paper begins with an explanation of the rationale and the initial concept of the Artist-Astronaut project. Section 2 discusses the different elements of the project. Section 3 describes the performances in more detail. Section 4 discusses results and the future goals of the project are provided in section 5.